Love By Design by S.W. Andersen

Love By Design by S.W. Andersen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


For several reasons, this was a difficult book for me to read. The main one was the fact that at about 29% into the book, and no no need to use a spoiler alert, I ended up receiving access to two advance reader copies of books I really wanted to read. There wasn’t anything inherently bad or unreadable about this book up to that point, but, I found myself in the unfortunate situation of wanting to read something else while not having a good excuse to dump the book I was reading. This situation, oddly enough, ties into the book.

Oddly enough, has a somewhat (completely unrelated nonsimilar) similar situation develop. In that one of the main characters was in love with a particular character when the book began – to the point that she was in the process of marrying them. That’d be Cassie Carl. My this isn’t at all similar yet, eh? Then she finds she has access to two books . . wait, no, she meets the interior designer, Peyton Kingston, her future husband had hired to add a window to a part of the house (I thought you hired interior designers to do things like redesign a particular room, to make the furniture, walls, carpet, etc. ‘look good’, and hired an architect or, more likely, a contractor to put in a window, but whatever).

Cassie repeatedly, and I mean repeatedly, tells herself that she loves whatshisname, in fact she’d marry him in a heartbeat, the problem she has with him isn’t him, but his family – both the individuals in question (the mother seems to hate Cassie), and the position in society they hold which come with massive responsibilities (they be rich society types – the kind where women don’t work, unless it is charity and/or volunteer work – which really annoys Cassie since she’s worked her way up from garbage to be a department store manager). This, at least, is what she thinks before she meets Peyton for the first time. And afterwards. There’s just an added twist. The part where she’s deeply impacted by the mere presence of Peyton in a room – not that she’s ever been one of those, you know, lesbians – to the point of wanting to pounce her, rip her clothing off, and bang her for the next 90 years.

Meanwhile, in Peyton’s corner, we find . . . the exact same reaction. Except Peyton is not, at that point, ‘seeing anyone’. Oh, and is a lesbian, so finding another woman attractive isn’t a shock to the system. Later she, Peyton, finds someone to ‘see’ – Charyl (sp?) who runs a restaurant, is opening another, and lusts after Peyton (has for years).

There’s a weird mix of side characters that I cannot always remember how they fit in. Since they seem to float around amongst the main characters (especially Francesca), without ever being mentioned (it seems) by the main characters to each other.

Right, so, I was liking this book, not loving, but liking this book, two arcs became available to me, both of which I lusted at more than this book and . . . well, it’s a stretch. I had this thought. It isn’t working well. The part where Cassie is perfectly happy with ‘rich boyfriend dude whose name I can’t remember’, even loves him (she mentions this numerous times) – except for his connection to his family, as in they exist – until she becomes aware of someone else even more humpable. And . . . stuff.

Hmms. Good enough book. Took me longer than normal to read (shesh, three days to read this book?).

Rating: 3.33

May 17 2018




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